Are You Proficient?

Friday, 02:00 pm

The term "proficiency" has been a part of the Pathfinder rules since the very beginning, but in the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, we've expanded the concept to cover more than just weapons and armor. In the new proficiency system, your proficiency matters for just about every check you attempt and DC you have. You don't just have proficiency in weapons, which helps when you swing a sword, or proficiency in armor, which protects you when you try to avoid a blow—instead, proficiency covers everything from axes to spells, from Acrobatics to Thievery, and from Perception to Will saves. Your proficiency in Fortitude saves can allow you to shake off virulent poisons in an instant, and your proficiency in Diplomacy might help you stop a fight before it begins. There are five different ranks of proficiency.

Are You Proficient?

Friday, March 16, 2018

The term "proficiency" has been a part of the Pathfinder rules since the very beginning, but in the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, we've expanded the concept to cover more than just weapons and armor. In the new proficiency system, your proficiency matters for just about every check you attempt and DC you have. You don't just have proficiency in weapons, which helps when you swing a sword, or proficiency in armor, which protects you when you try to avoid a blow—instead, proficiency covers everything from axes to spells, from Acrobatics to Thievery, and from Perception to Will saves. Your proficiency in Fortitude saves can allow you to shake off virulent poisons in an instant, and your proficiency in Diplomacy might help you stop a fight before it begins. There are five different ranks of proficiency.

Untrained

An untrained character lacks even basic proficiency. He adjusts his checks and DCs by –2 and sometimes flat-out can't attempt certain things. For instance, someone who is untrained in Thievery might be able to try to steal from someone but isn't skilled enough to pick a lock, no matter how high level he is.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Trained

A trained character has put in enough work that she's able to perform effectively. She can even start taking skill feats to achieve new and special effects with her skills. Many skill feats grow more and more powerful as your proficiency rank increases.

Expert

An expert is particularly accomplished in a particular field, adjusting her checks and DCs by +1, and gains access to more powerful features requiring expertise.

Master

A master is extremely skilled in an area, and she can achieve incredible results. In addition to adjusting her checks and DCs by +2, she may unlock powerful perks like master-level skill feats for skills, or the ability to dodge fireballs completely for Reflex saves. Other than a few classes like fighters, with their incredible command of weapons, characters can't become masters until level 7 at the earliest, and sometimes much later.

Legendary

A legendary character is world-class, and in addition to adjusting checks and DCs by +3, can routinely produce results that defy real-world explanation, even if they're not a spellcaster. For instance, a character who is legendary in Survival could learn to survive without food, water, or air in a featureless void, a character legendary in Thievery might be able to steal the armor off a guard, and a character with a legendary Will save might have a mind so strong that no mental intrusion can fully affect him. Most characters can't hope to become legendary until level 15 at the earliest, and even the mightiest fighters reach these heights with their weapons only at level 13. Most characters become legendary in only a few skills and one or two other statistics.

Proficiency Modifier

Your proficiency modifier is based partly on your rank and partly on your level—you add your level to the modifier from your rank to determine your proficiency modifier. For instance, a level 20 rogue who is legendary at Stealth might have a +23 proficiency modifier, while a level 1 paladin who is untrained at Stealth might have a –1 proficiency modifier. But does that mean that your level 20 untrained and magic-hating barbarian knows more about arcane magic than your friend's level 1 bibliophile wizard does? Not really. Your barbarian, with her extensive experience in battle, might be able to identify a dragon's weaknesses much better than the wizard with his ivory-tower book learning, but when it comes to magical theory, identifying the gestures that compose a spell, or other such topics, your barbarian simply doesn't know anything at all.

Gaining Proficiency

For most of your statistics, your starting proficiencies are determined by your class, though for skills, you can assign your ranks as you choose among any of the skills in the game. When it comes to leveling up, all classes gain skill rank increases at every odd-numbered level (or more often for the rogue!). Your other proficiencies increase based on your class and feat choices.

Making the Nonmagical Extraordinary

The best part about proficiencies is the way they push the boundaries for nonmagical characters, particularly those with a legendary rank. If you're legendary in something, you're like a character out of real-world myth and legend, swimming across an entire sea while beating up sea monsters like Beowulf, performing unbelievable tasks like Heracles, or hunting and racing at astounding speeds like Atalanta. While we did perform a bit of research on things like real world Olympic records and average expectations when it came to the lower ranks, masters and especially legends break all those rules. Want your fighter to leap 20 feet straight up and smash a chimera down to the ground? You can do that (eventually)!

And that's the basics of how proficiency works! Thanks for reading, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Visions of the Pact Worlds

Friday, 12:00 pm

Starfinder Pact Worlds is almost here, so we thought it might be fun to show off some of the cool art you'll encounter as you delve deeper into the cultures and politics of the Pact Worlds. To find out more about these exciting locations and interesting personalities, check out Starfinder Pact Worlds, available this month!

Visions of the Pact Worlds

Friday, March 16, 2018

Starfinder Pact Worlds is almost here, so we thought it might be fun to show off some of the cool art you'll encounter as you delve deeper into the cultures and politics of the Pact Worlds. To find out more about these exciting locations and interesting personalities, check out Starfinder Pact Worlds, available this month!

Making the Most of Character Unlocks

Thursday, 03:00 pm

Ever since the first Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Decks were released, you have been able to use Adventure Path characters of the same class as your deck in the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild. This has been a great way to add more variety to PFSACG character options (in case the 88 Class Deck characters aren't already enough for you!).

Making the Most of Character Unlocks

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Ever since the first Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Decks were released, you have been able to use Adventure Path characters of the same class as your deck in the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild. This has been a great way to add more variety to PFSACG character options (in case the 88 Class Deck characters aren't already enough for you!).

The latest version of the Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild Guide extends this to work with decks that contain characters of more than one class. For example, since the Pathfinder Tales Character Deck contains a wizard, you can use Ezren with that deck. And certain PFSACG adventure rewards unlock the ability to use specific characters with specific decks.

So, I decided to make a list of all the additional characters that you can use with each deck, including those you can only unlock with Chronicle sheets or boons. Every Class and Character deck has at least one additional playable character!

Sorcerer Class Deck: Seoni (Rise of the Runelords), Seoni (Wrath of the Righteous)

Summoner Class Deck: Balazar (Wrath of the Righteous)

Warpriest Class Deck: Oloch (Skull & Shackles)

Witch Class Deck: Feiya (Skull & Shackles)

Wizard Class Deck: Ezren (Rise of the Runelords), Ezren (Mummy's Mask), Enora (Wrath of the Righteous)—unlocked by Season of the Shackles Adventure 6

Whew! That's a lot of possibilities! Some of these options are total win for the characters, such as unlocking the Hunter deck for any Ranger. But there are a few that are more strange and interesting. Let's talk about a few of these, shall we?

The Pathfinder Tales deck has the most new options. The deck contains Varian (a wizard), Radovan (a rogue), and Celeste (a sorcerer). The Wizard, Rogue and Sorcerer Class decks are among the first that were released, so they didn't include any cards from some of the more recent base sets. The Tales deck has plenty of new cards, so let's see what fun things we can do giving those cards to a character who has otherwise been left a bit behind as far as card selection goes: Seoni from Wrath of the Righteous.

Seoni's Element Master role works best with spells that have the Acid, Cold, Electricity or Fire traits, of which the Tales deck includes many. When you choose this role, she gains a free power to reduce damage of a type matching one of these traits. She can also take a feat to add a flat +4 to her checks that have one of those traits, and another feat to let her auto-recharge items with those traits, so items like Necklace of Fireballs and Wand of Flame are excellent choices for her.

You can just imagine Seoni's delight when she finds this wand in some dark dungeon.

Has your Seoni been frustrated by the Trigger trait in either of the Mummy's Mask-based seasons? Grab the Tales ally Eando Kline, who gives you the ability to ignore non-villain Trigger powers. Or pick up the duo of Acadamae Student and Acadamae Scholar, who work together to make your Arcane checks oh-so-good. Or grab Jelani or Isiem, who can add the Cold or Fire trait to your combat check with a simple recharge. And there's a Blessing of the Elements in the Tales deck, an obvious choice for fiery Seoni.

Next, let's take a look at the new Occult Adventures decks. Both include characters from the Mummy's Mask Base Set, including my best character ever. Mavaro can be played using any of four other class decks, so he has had access to plenty of excellent boons throughout his long and storied career. However, some of the boons in Occult Adventures 2 are just too perfect for him to pass up.

For example, Mavaro has his own sword, The Missing Eye. It's a fine weapon, and is especially good at taking out demons. And it gives him a bonus on Fortitude or Perception checks when he really needs it. Even better, if he displays it, he gains four useful skills equal to his Intelligence: Strength, Melee, Wisdom and Divine. If you'd like to use him as a spellcaster, there are some excellent spells that use his Knowledge or Perception for effects or recharge checks, both of which he has a bonus to, such as Mind Thrust, Object Reading, and Kinetic Blast.

There are a lot of reasons why Mavaro is my favorite character, but I think the top one is his rockin' dad bod.

Have you found yourself taking a bunch of Mental damage that can't be reduced? You should really pick up the Crystal Mail, which will let you recharge those cards instead of discarding them. Or perhaps you could hang the Shrunken Head on your belt, letting you ignore a monster's powers that happen before you act. Also check out the Mindblade, who lets you use your Perception skill for your combat check.

I hope I've convinced you already of the potential value of some of these deck unlocks, but now let's really go off the deep end with the Hell's Vengeance character decks! I'm going to start with Deck 2, which contains Zelhara the Inquisitor, thereby allowing us to use Imrijka from Wrath of the Righteous. In her quest to root out evil and corruption, Imrijka has never been afraid to use tactics that might make some people squirm, so I can imagine she would embrace some less-than-legal items if she got hold of them, and that's exactly what the Hell's Vengeance 2 deck does for her.

First, there are a ton of great Ranged weapons that she can use her unique Ranged: Strength +1 skill with, such as the Galvanic Chakram +1, the Spirit Blade, or my favorite, the Stalker's Crossbow. Of course, that crossbow has the Corrupted trait, but there are ways that Imrijka can get around the penalties that trait imposes, like the Redeemer Blacksmith or the Channel Corruption spell.

Imrijka has never been too concerned with getting her hands dirty, and using a Corrupted weapon for the sake of good intentions is still good, right? Guys? Where are you going?

Excellent spells like Blade Lash and Steal Soul are here for the taking as well. The Sniper's Studded Leather, Shackles of Compliance, and Robe of Bones are all fantastic items that Imrijka can use to streak fear into her enemies, and those animated Undead allies... well, she normally wouldn't make use of those as a Pharasmin, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Last but not least, let's look at Hell's Vengeance 1. This deck includes Lazzero, a cleric of Asmodeus. He's evil and grouchy and people just generally don't like him much, but perhaps there's another cleric that can bring some divine light into this deck? I'm talking about Kyra, my friends. No, not Drelm. Kyra. Yes, you heard me right.

Kyra is a goody-two-shoes, and everyone knows it. She's a staunch supporter of Sarenrae, hates dead things, and tries to bring light and happiness to all. But not this Kyra. Maybe this version of Kyra lost the love of her life Merisiel in a fight with a vampire, and was turned by that vampire to serve his dark bidding? However it happened, this is not the undead-hating Sarenrae-loving Kyra we all know and love... this is something else, and there are plenty of ways for her to get out her newfound aggression using Hell's Vengeance 1. Interested in using a flaming hammer to strike down some weaklings? Check out Sinderbos, and maybe boost your combat with a fun spell like Instrument of Agony or Circle of Evil. Or perhaps just burn them to death with your Hellfire Halo..

Look into her eyes and tell me there's a shred of decency left in her. Oops, you probably shouldn't have looked directly into her eyes...

There are fun allies to capture, like the devil Suurlahetas or the Asmodean High Priest. There are a dizzying array of new Corrupted blessings to choose from as well, like the Blessing of the Prince of Lies, which lets you bury it and all other cards in your hand to straight up succeed at a check against a boon or non-villain bane.

Now, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that playing evil Kyra will be easy. Neither the Rise of the Runelords nor the Wrath of the Righteous versions of her have as many ways to deal with the penalties of Corrupted boons as the characters that come in the deck do, so she'll have to rely on things like Channel Corruption and the Redeemer Blacksmith. If you're looking for a challenge, though, bringing Kyra over to the dark side might just be up your alley.

That's it for this edition of "Tyler takes over the Paizo blog." I've recently become the Venture Captain for Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild online play, and we are currently running several games as part of the OutPost play-by-post gaming convention on the Paizo forums, so if you have any questions about this blog's content or about playing the card game online, feel free to contact me at cartmanbeck@orgplayonline.com!

Rituals and Rivals

Thursday, 12:00 pm

I know there's a lot of excitement in the Pathfinder community these days, and I'm proud to be at the center of it with the most adamantly followed announcements of them all—Jungle of Despair previews!

Rituals and Rivals

Thursday, March 15, 2018

I know there's a lot of excitement in the Pathfinder community these days, and I'm proud to be at the center of it with the most adamantly followed announcements of them all—Jungle of Despair previews!

Prior to Jungle of Despair, which releases in May, the last major jungle content we've released across our myriad Pathfinder lines was the Worldscape series of Pathfinder comics from Dynamite Entertainment, written by our own Chief Creative Officer and Publisher, Erik Mona. These crossover comics find the iconic Pathfinders whisked from Golarion to a strange, jungle demiplane where they battle and ally with such pulp fantasy heroes as John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Red Sonja, and Fantoma. The demiplane, called the Worldscape, was actually created by the archmage Nex, one of the Pathfinder setting's most infamous wizard-kings, to serve as a staging ground for the greatest warriors of three worlds to assault the unconquerable city of Absalom. Now you can include elements of the Worldscape saga into your campaigns with the final piece of dungeonjungle dressing in the set, the summoning pillar. Modeled off the prominent monoliths scattered throughout the Worldscape, this imposing relic can also serve as any standing stone in your campaign.

No summoning pillar is complete without a powerful spellcaster to active it or bend its ancient magic to her will. One such figure is the serpentfolk wizard, a Medium rare figure based on one of the final villains in the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path, a wizard of the Amphisbaenian Rite.

If serpentfolk aren't your thing, you can instead use the summoning pillar with the morlock cleric, a Medium uncommon figure based on the art for Eudranis, the sample morlock in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited. We're not picky about what evil monster person activates the summoning pillar, honest. What's really important is that your PCs get whisked away to a strange jungle of adventure and, I'll venture to say, despair.

Not all your foes need to be spellcasters, however. Why not give your players a hard time with a little bit of friendly assassination? And who better to stab someone in the back than a silent, sneaky elf? The elf assassin figure, a Medium uncommon offering, can easily serve this purpose. Or he can make for a nice rogue of swashbuckler player character. This figure's utility knows no limits!

Next week, we'll delve beneath the Jungle of Despair to look at some of the threats one can find teeming in the Darklands below.

A new edition inspires changes in other programs, including Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. When the new edition releases in August 2019, we will be launching a Pathfinder Society campaign using the new rules. Scenarios from that month onward will use the new edition, but that doesn't stop you from continuing to play first edition adventures (hundreds scenarios and dozens of sanctioned modules and Adventure Paths) with your first edition PCs.

We answer a lot of preliminary questions in the Pathfinder Society section of the FAQ, but there's a lot more to creating a new campaign than nine questions can detail. Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing more information and soliciting feedback on much more. After all, we've had a long time to consider strategies, but we've had only a little more than a week to discuss the matter with the community without spoiling the announcement. And discussion's an important part of the equation for organized play community; we thrive on incorporating player, GM, and organizer feedback into our decisions to ensure the most fair and fun experience.

So lets look at some preliminary answers together.

Lessons from Starfinder Society

By the time we began creating the Starfinder Society campaign—with much of the heavy lifting done by Thurston Hillman—everyone on the team had years of playing in, designing for, and managing the Pathfinder Society campaign. This was also our first time building an organized play campaign largely from the ground up, and it was gratifying to identify what had worked and what hadn't aged well in order to create a great program. In saying this, I do want to dispel one myth: Starfinder Society wasn't a prototype for a second edition Pathfinder Society campaign. It represented our creating a great organized play campaign informed by hard-learned lessons and years of inspiration. As we look toward creating a new Pathfinder Society campaign, we're learning from both the first edition experiences and Starfinder Society's success to create another great organized play program.

So what's worked well for Starfinder Society? Short answer's "A whole lot of things," and the team's impression is that many of these could work very well in Pathfinder Society, too. Let's break that down into subtopics.

Smaller Tiers: Pathfinder Society's first edition uses a 5-level spread for its tiers (e.g. Tier 1-5), breaking that into two subtiers (e.g. Subtiers 1-2 and 4-5). Although this has worked well from the perspective of allowing as many characters as possible to play each adventure, it leaves an awkward out-of-subtier gap. Also, the wider the level range, the easier it is for someone on the low end of that range to end up facing a wildly overpowering foe in the higher subtier; the same's true for very high level PCs practically walking over low-subtier threats. On the other hand, Starfinder Society uses a 4-level spread for its tiers (e.g. Tier 1-4) with two subtiers (e.g. Subtiers 1-2 and 3-4), eliminating the out-of-subtier gap and tightening the difficulty ranges for the encounters.

Overall, we're inclined to switch to this 4-level tier model, which would include Tiers 1-4, 3-6, 5-8, 7-10, and so on. We've opened up a Tiers and Level Gain thread to solicit your insights, so be sure to join the conversation there.

Boons: Starfinder Society boons—everything from the story awards earned during scenarios to the incentives distributed at public events—underwent a major revision in the form of boon slots. With some exceptions, each boon belongs to one of six categories: Ally, Faction, Personal, Promotional, Social, or Starship. At the beginning of each scenario, after hearing the mission's briefing, each player takes a moment to assign up to one boon of each type into its respective boon slot. There were several goals here. First, it gave us a clean way to handle our new faction model (see below). Second, it meant that players didn't have to shuffle through piles of Chronicle sheets mid-game to find a boon but could instead ready boons at the beginning of the adventure. Third, it helped us balance boon design around the idea that each PC would have a limited number of boons rather than dozens upon dozens of minor bonuses for which the Pathfinder rules simply don't account. By being really clear in scenarios when a boon might be useful to a player, I feel we've also promoted transparency, not yanked out the rug from under players.

All told, we've been really happy with how Starfinder Society boons work, and our inclination is to translate that system over to our second edition campaign. Naturally, we'd replace the Starship slot with something more genre appropriate (I know, I know... I just ruined one of your character concepts, didn't I?).

But that's our take, and we want to know how you feel about how boons would factor into the new campaign. Let us know in the Boons thread.

Factions and Fame: Okay, let's get one complaint out on the table: the Prestige Points/Fame/Reputation definitions aren't completely consistent between Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society. We recognized that going in, but we also balanced that against a desire to set Fame and Infamy in opposition to each other and just have shorter, cleaner terms overall. The odds are good that we'll adopt similar terminology in the new campaign.

Starfinder made some significant changes to how factions and Fame work. The most dramatic change is that each PC can work with any number of factions, slotting in a different faction champion boon at the beginning of any adventure to represent that allegiance. The especially devoted can stick to one faction, of course, but the options are there. What's more, factions in Starfinders provide about a dozen purchasable boons each, many of which might remind you of the vanities from Pathfinder Society. The more you serve a faction, the higher your status with them, and the more impressive the boons you can buy with your Fame. The drawback's that these took us a lot of time to create (especially Thursty, who handled the majority of the wordsmithing), but they've given each faction a much deeper role, both narratively and mechanically.

We're strongly looking to adopt the same faction model for second edition, giving PCs the freedom to work with an assortment of factions and purchase faction-themed benefits. We want to hear what you think in the Factions and Fame thread.

During the first few seasons, the Society's factions fought with one another in the Shadow War for control over Absalom. The intrigue was compelling, but the tight-lipped secrecy and occasional elements of backstabbing weren't especially conducive to playing a cooperative game. In the past five years I feel the factions have reached a comfortable equilibrium of working with the Society while also pursuing their own objectives (and sometimes pulling the Society along for the ride). Starfinder Society's also done a great job with this, showing how each faction is a facet of what drives the diverse cast of Starfinders. What's your take? Let us know in that discussion thread.

Finally, any discussion of the factions begs the question "Which factions will appear in second edition?" Well, we already know about some more faction developments coming down the pipeline later in Season 9 and Season 10. Beyond that, though, I'll be frank: we haven't locked in anything. Some factions might step back or merge. Some new ones might appear. All I can say is that the fewer the factions, the more we attention we can give them.

Chronicle Sheets

Around four years ago, the team created numerous prototypes for a new Chronicle sheet, shifting all of the information boxes to the top (rather than splitting it along the top, bottom, and side), juggling various features, and even eliminating certain entries altogether. We eventually returned to the original concept but tinkered with the layout and information fields in smaller ways. I admit that at this point I'm comfortably fond of the current design. I'm also not a graphic designer, and I'm sure that there are countless ways we could improve the Chronicle sheet to make it easier for players to find information and easier for GMs to fill them out—all while maintaining a visually attractive format.

At this point there's no final design. Instead, we're soliciting your feedback in the Chronicle sheets thread. What would help you keep track of your rewards, minimize paperwork, and not impose an undue burden on the GMs?

Oh! I almost forgot: there are already plans in the works for how to ensure that items on the Chronicle sheets are relevant without undermining a PC's general access to other gear through Fame (or a similar mechanic). Until there's more news from the design team about equipment, though, I'm going to leave it at that.

Organizing the Guide

A new campaign demands a new Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. The Guide's gone through around 10 revisions in its lifetime, and it's certainly become a complex creation over the years. That said, Tonya's efforts to reorganize the document with major help from our guide review team (a group of venture-officers who help us identify inconsistencies and places for improvement) have helped break the veritable tome into more easily printed, essential sections.

We feel the Guide's in a pretty good place now, and we'll certainly apply many of the lessons learned when creating the next Guide. That said, we want to hear from the people who are using this document on a regular basis. Tell us what you'd want to see in a redesigned Guide—layout, organization, information, and more—in our Structure of the Roleplaying Guild Guide thread.

Character Numbers

Player numbers are going to stay the same in the new edition's campaign. Much as Starfinder Society character numbers began at -701, you'll find that any playtest characters are going to start at -1501, and second edition characters will start at -2001. I imagine this won't be contentious, but speak up if you foresee some hidden issue with this numbering scheme.

That does raise the question of how we're tracking playtest credit, doesn't it? Does that credit translate into second edition Chronicle sheets? Not quite, but potentially. That's something for a later blog.

GM Stars

When Starfinder Society started up, we recognized that five GM stars wouldn't necessarily correspond to proficiency with the Starfinder rules. Certainly GM stars conveyed dedication to organized play as a whole and comfort "behind the screen," yet we needed a separate means of tracking one's Starfinder Society accomplishments. As we look toward the second edition of Pathfinder RPG, we're seeing similar indicators.

That means a few things. First, it means that we're looking to introduce an additional means of tracking GMs' efforts in second edition games. Second, it means that first edition GM stars aren't disappearing; their principle impact is on the first edition campaign, and they remain the celebrated badge of honor for a GM's contributions. Third, we recognize that this may disappoint some folks, and we're looking at ways to balance this by making players' experiences and GMs' efforts relevant in the new campaign. We're reviewing the ongoing commentary and soliciting opinions in an ongoing process of establishing this policy's details—matters we'll discuss in a future blog.

Character Conversions

As we stated in the Pathfinder Playtest FAQ, we are not converting first edition characters into second edition characters. This may be the toughest decision we've had to make. Like me, you probably have several folders of characters with lots of Chronicle sheets and tales yet to be told. Not only are we providing lots of options to tell meaningful stories with those characters in the coming months, but we're also including various ways to carry your gaming experience over from one campaign to the next. This is an ongoing process and one that we'll address in a future blog.

Season 10

Okay, that's a lot to digest for the second edition. Let's talk a little about Season 10. I've seen a lot of threads and posts noting that Season 10 needs higher-level scenarios, should wrap up some ongoing stories, and should go out with a bang.

The organized play team agrees entirely!

We traditionally announce our new season's name at PaizoCon and hint at some of the awesome stories to come, and I'm not going to spoil that today. I will, however, say that we have some Big Plans for the first edition campaign's final scenarios. We're also thoroughly aware that many of you want to pit your favorite characters against higher-level challenges, so we're reducing the number of lower level scenarios published noticeably for Season 10 while increasing the number of Tier 5-9, 7-11, 12-15 adventures (perhaps higher). There's so much great story content in the works, and we look forward to sharing it over the coming months.

Our New Developer

We have a lot on the horizon and a lot of work ahead, and we're excited to have Michael Sayre join the organized play team as a developer. He's been working on the upcoming Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-16: Fallen Family, Broken Name, and we're looking forward to the great things he'll bring the Pathfinder Society campaign. With Michael on board, I'll be spending more of my time helping Thursty on Starfinder Society development and working on the upcoming playtest scenarios, and our larger team means more opportunity for all of us to help spin up the next edition's Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild.

Forest from the Trees

Tue, Mar 13, 2018, 12:00 pm

Not too long ago we announced a change to our modular mapping products. Pathfinder Map Packs had a good run, but we knew we could do better. To replace the Map Packs, we put together Flip-Tiles: 6-inch-by-6-inch, double-sided tiles, each corresponding to a themed starter set, and designed to be even more modular than the Map Packs where.

Forest from the Trees

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Not too long ago we announced a change to our modular mapping products. Pathfinder Map Packs had a good run, but we knew we could do better. To replace the Map Packs, we put together Flip-Tiles: 6-inch-by-6-inch, double-sided tiles, each corresponding to a themed starter set, and designed to be even more modular than the Map Packs where.

Our first Starter Set along with its first expansion saw announcement in that earlier blog. Surprise, surprise, it was dungeon themed. After the release of those two sets, we are going to release the second starter, which will be Forest Starter Set. Coming quickly on its heels is a forest-themed expansion, similar to the role that Dungeon Perils plays with the Dungeon Starter Set. From these two initial starter sets and their expansions, you can see where we are going with all of this. Given that many of the sets also have connector tiles—that is tiles that bridge the gap between one theme and another, you can probably get a good idea of where the product line is going.

Not everything is set in stone, though. As with any new product, we are keen to assess your wants and desires for such products. I'm pretty good at anticipating, since my first thought when designing a new map or a mapping product is always, "would I want to play with this?" But sometimes something incredibly obvious can just zing over my head as I sketch away on this project or that.

In one of those "why the heck didn't I think of that?" moments, when we announced the product in an earlier blog, a group of folks suggested that we find an alphanumeric scheme for the tiles. It was a good idea and sent us backpedaling a bit and considering the best way to implement such a feature.

Like any product decision, this starts with a cost/benefit analysis, not one that talked to the bottom line when it comes to the actual economics of the product. It wouldn't affect the printing costs, but would such numbering be beneficial rather than harmful. The benefits were numerous. Not only would it help the user organize their collection, but such a code can also be utilized by adventure writers to instantly tell the user what tiles were needed to present a map that used them and even which set to find the correct tile.

It's no secret that an element for the success of the Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics line is Pathfinder Society's has utilization of Flip-Mats throughout that line and the older GameMastery lines' existence. It turns out that when actual use and play increases so does demand. One of the goals of the Flip-Tile line was an increase of utility with of modular mapping product, so any idea that would improve that usability carried a great deal of weight.

Of course, as with anything, there were arguments against organizing the tiles with an alphanumeric code. But they were sparse, typically amounted to the complaint that it would "reduce immersion," so we knew that if we could make it as useful and unobtrusive as possible, we could hover around the best of both worlds.

In the end, after a great deal of brainstorming and discussion, we came up the with the following format:

The abbreviation for the set type tells you what starter set the tile is from or expands. For instance, if the tile is part of the Dungeon Starter Set or one of its expansions, it features the letters DU (for dungeon). If its part of the Forest Starter Set or one of the forest expansions, it features the letter FR (for forest... while avoiding the somewhat confusing FO designator). The set numbering is as brief and concise as possible. If the tile is from a starter set, the set number is 0. Since Dungeon Perils is the first expansion of the Dungeon Starter Set, that set's tiles will feature a DU1 in the first line of the code.

There is a tile number from 01-42 for in each starter set or 01-24 in each expansion. One side is labeled A, and the other is labeled B. So, for instance, the second side of the 24th tile in Flip-Tiles: Dungeon Perils would have the following code featured on a corner of the tile.

DU1
24B

While the last second side of the last tile found in Flip-Tiles: Forest Starter Set would feature this code.

FR0
42B

With just a glance, you can put away and rearrange your tiles. Better yet, when preparing your next game, you can just list the group of tiles you need for each encounter, throw them in a box and go.

All of this stems our main goal here at Paizo—to give you all the content and tools to have the best roleplaying experiences available.

Leveling Up!

Mon, Mar 12, 2018, 03:00 pm

With the Pathfinder Playtest, we're looking to level up the entire Pathfinder game. And that means leveling up... leveling up! Gaining new levels and the toys that come with them is a core part of Pathfinder First Edition, and we want to make it more rewarding in the new edition. So how do you level up?

Leveling Up!

Monday, March 12, 2018

With the Pathfinder Playtest, we're looking to level up the entire Pathfinder game. And that means leveling up... leveling up! Gaining new levels and the toys that come with them is a core part of Pathfinder First Edition, and we want to make it more rewarding in the new edition. So how do you level up?

Well, first you're going to need some Experience Points. You can get those XP by fighting monsters, encountering traps, solving puzzles, and accomplishing goals. Once you hit 1,000 XP, you level up! (That's for every level, so whenever you have 500 XP, you'll always know you're halfway to leveling up again! And if you have any extra Experience Points after leveling up, they count toward the next level.)

Once you have enough Experience Points to level up, you'll increase your proficiencies, then get some more Hit Points (8 + Constitution modifier for a cleric, for example), and then get to make the choices for your new level. What choices? Those are all covered on your class's class advancement table. For instance, at 2nd and 3rd levels, the cleric gets the following:

2

Cleric feat, skill feat

3

2nd-level spells, general feat, skill increase

(Wait... what if I multiclass? We'll cover that in a future blog, but let's just say you'll still be referencing only one advancement table.)

One thing we knew we wanted to include in the new edition was a good number of choices for all characters. In first edition, this could be pretty unequal. Even though over time, the game incorporated more ways to customize any type of character, we wanted to build in more robust customization into the structure of every class. That's why every class gets specific class talents (which include spells for spellcasters) at 1st level and every other level thereafter, increases to skills every other level, and feats at every level!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Feats Feats Feats!

How does gaining feats at every level shake out? Every class has special feats just for them, which you gain every other level. When your cleric hits 2nd level and gets that cleric feat, do you want to become a better healer? Learn another of your deity's domains? Turn undead away from you? Your class feats give you these options, so you're not locked into the same path as every other cleric.

On any level when you don't gain a class feat, you gain a skill feat to change the ways you can use skills, a general feat that's useful to any character regardless of class, or an ancestry feat that reflects the training or advantages of your people. Skill feats are part of the general feat category, too, so if you really want to invest in your skills, you can drop 15 feats on improving them!

Many of your feats—especially class feats—give you new actions, activities, and so on that you can use. They have a special format to tell you how they work with your three actions and one reaction. Formatting them this way means that it's easier to tell whether a feat is something you can always do or a special action you can take. In Pathfinder First Edition terms, this would be like the difference between Weapon Focus and Vital Strike.

One of our goals with feats was to make them easier to choose and to use. Most feats require very few prerequisites, so you won't need to worry about picking a feat you really don't want in order to eventually get one you do. Any prerequisites build off your level, your proficiency, and any previous feats the new feat builds onto.

The Best of Your Ability

You'll also amp up several of your ability scores every 5 levels. The process might be familiar to those of you who've been playing Starfinder for the last several months! There are, of course, a few tweaks, and we made all ability boosts work the same way instead of being different at 1st level. Learn it once, use it in perpetuity.

Second Chances

So you get all these choices. Let's say you make a few bad ones. It happens!

Retraining your abilities is now in the game from the get-go, covered by the downtime system. You can spend your downtime to swap out choices you made for other ones. (Though you can't swap out ones that are a core part of your character, like your ancestry, unless you work out a way to do so with your GM.

Some classes give you ways to retrain your choices automatically. For instance, some spells get less useful as you go up in level, so spontaneous spellcasters get to replace some of the spells they know with other ones when they get new spells.

Leveling in the Playtest

The playtest adventure will have you playing characters at various levels, and tells you when to level them up (or tells you to create new characters for certain chapters). Our goal has been to make your options expansive and satisfying, but not overwhelming. We look forward to you telling us which decisions you're making, trading tips with fellow players, and agonizing over two feats when you really want them both.

Fiendgully: The Last Painforest

Mon, Mar 12, 2018, 12:00 pm

It's just been a bit since our delayed look at the set's creepy crawlies, but a short detour in our journey through the Jungle of Despair won't prevent me from at least trying to stay on schedule. This week we examine some of the fiends featured in the set: daemons and qlippoth!

Fiendgully: The Last Painforest

Monday, March 12, 2018

It's just been a bit since our delayed look at the set's creepy crawlies, but a short detour in our journey through the Jungle of Despair won't prevent me from at least trying to stay on schedule. This week we examine some of the fiends featured in the set: daemons and qlippoth!

Hailing from the desolate plane of Abaddon, daemons serve the Four Horsemen in their efforts to claim as many mortal souls as possible. Like all Outer Planes, Abaddon's primary means of soul acquisition comes from worshipers of neutral evil deities who are judged and sent there upon their mortal demise. But daemons' hunger is rarely sated, and like most fiends, they are always looking for new, less scrupulous means of growing their numbers. The terrifying astradaemon, for example, traverses the River of Souls on the Astral Plane, like a shark, plucking unlucky victims from their rightful path to the afterlife. With a life-draining touch, astradaemons speed their living victims toward death, increasing the prevalence of their prey in the River of Souls. The astradaemon is a Large rare figure.

Exhibiting cephalopod, crustacean, and humanoid features, the menacing venom daemon uses potent poison to bring low its enemies. Native to the swampy or fully aquatic regions of Abaddon, venom daemons target the strongest of their foes first, both as a tactical choice and for the emotional impact when foes see the greatest among them fall. The venom daemon is a Medium rare figure.

Older even than deamonkind are the qlippoth of the Abyss, whose hatred for the myriad demons who now rule their home plane knows no bounds. Last week we looked at the spider-like thulgant qlippoth, but it's just one of the four qlippoths Jungle of Despair has to offer. First this week is the ravenous qlippoth, whose body takes the form of a writhing ball of intertwined intestines and toothy mouths, an anatomy that serves it well as the scavenger of the Abyss. The ravenous qlippoth is a Medium uncommon figure.

The slightly more powerful infectious qlippoth is a manifestation of the Abyss's fecundity, spreading pain and suffering throughout the multiverse. The monocular, tentacle-covered beasts are capable of travel to other planes, where they spread misfortune indiscriminately. The infectious qlippoth is a Large uncommon figure.

Finally, we come to the gongorinan qlippoth, the crablike spawn of the qlippoth lord, Yamasoth, who was himself closely associated with Alaznist, the final Runelord of Wrath. A medium rare figure, the gongorinan qlippoth (along with most of the other figures in this week's preview) is sure to serve Game Masters running the forthcoming Return of the Runelords Adventure Path well.

That's all for now, folks! I hope you survived our glimpse into the Abyss (and Abaddon). Next week we'll return to the jungles of Golarion with a look at some of the mortal rivals your adventurers may encounter along their journey into despair.

Pathfinder Playtest: Return to the Crypt

Fri, Mar 9, 2018, 04:00 pm

As part of our announcement for Pathfinder Second Edition, we recorded a game session with the hilarious crew from the Glass Cannon Network. They were kind enough to invite us to their studio in New York, where Erik Mona and I playtested the game with them, converting the first ever Pathfinder Module, Crypt of the Everflame, to the new rules.

Pathfinder Playtest: Return to the Crypt

Friday, March 9, 2018

As part of our announcement for Pathfinder Second Edition, we recorded a game session with the hilarious crew from the Glass Cannon Network. They were kind enough to invite us to their studio in New York, where Erik Mona and I playtested the game with them, converting the first ever Pathfinder Module, Crypt of the Everflame, to the new rules.

Because this was a live session, and because I was converting this adventure "on the fly," I thought it might be useful to all the listeners out there to include a companion blog post that explores some of the spoilers from the recording and corrects a few of the mistakes that we made during play.

Note that the following commentary includes spoilers, so if you have not listened to the podcast, you should probably go and download it from the Glass Cannon Network site right now (or from wherever you subscribe to podcasts). Entries include an approximate time stamp to let you know at what point they happen during the session.

Commentary for Part 1

This commentary refers to the first part of the podcast.

(03:00) I should note that the new version of Pathfinder has been in design now for well over two years. The first playtest of the core mechanics was only a few months into the design process, back in 2016.

(04:00) Obligatory Princess Bride reference.

(04:40) The only preparation for this adventure was to pull together existing monster statistics that correspond to those in the adventure. So, if the adventure featured wolves, the document I had with me had the new wolf stat block. Nothing else was converted—not the traps, random skill challenges, or monsters—without a corresponding converted stat block.

(06:00) This is the actual beginning of the module, starting with player and character introductions and the reveal of the adventure they are about to undertake. For ease of reference, the players and their characters listed here:

(31:40) The first skill check in the game is a Society check. This skill covers knowledge about towns, people, their customs, and their history. The information they are looking for here is relatively common knowledge, and the number they needed to roll (the Difficulty Class) is only a 10. Keith (Troy) fumbled the check and got false information, which was quickly debunked by the others.

(35:30) The party leaves town, entering exploration mode as they venture into the Fangwood.

(39:00) Erik, playing Grellun, just starts reading the spell descriptions from his character folio. Of note, when he reads off acid splash, he mentions "somatic" and "verbal," which does not seem to be much of a spoiler, but those are actually the names of the two actions you must spend to cast the spell!

(39:50) To keep the adventure moving along, in the hope to make this only a few hours long in total, there are a number of minor encounters that get skipped. During the journey, for example, I left out the encounter with the wolves, as it is ultimately unnecessary to the overall plot. Of course, the game still ran extremely long, due in large part to the fact that we were just having too much fun.

(40:10) Here we have the first fight of the game, against a trio of bloodthirsty orcs.

(43:50) That's right, Perception is no longer a skill. Your class gives you an initial proficiency in Perception and might possibly increase it over time.

(47:30) A note on attacking more than once in a round. If he had attacked with all three of his actions, the third attack would have been at an even larger penalty.

(54:10) Most of the maneuvers—grabbing, disarming, tumbling, and tripping—are now associated with the Acrobatics or Athletics skills.

(59:00) As the fight rages on, it quickly becomes apparent to some of the characters that these orcs are not real. Created by illusion magic, they vanish the moment they are struck. These phantom foes are created using a new spell called illusory creature. Created by a hidden wizard, these orcs are bit more difficult to hit than ordinary foes, basing their statistics on the caster. The fact that they are a spell also explains why they have only two actions each turn and hit for so little damage (all of which is halved once the illusion is revealed).

(1:05:30) The developers made me change that back. Neon green dice once again roll just as well as any other color of dice.

(1:07:20) Nimble Dodge has seen a lot of play in office playtests and has saved the lives of countless rogues.

(1:11:40) The characters in this playtest have decent bonuses to attack, but that is of little help when everyone is rolling lower than 10. No amount of redesign can account for fickle dice.

(1:16:00) A note on flanking. I made a small error here. Flanking does not grant you a +2 bonus to hit. Instead, it now makes the target flat-footed to your attacks, causing it to take a –2 penalty to its AC. It's the same result, but the distinction is relevant.

Commentary for Part 2

(02:30) I call that a skill unlock, which is an old term for what we now call a skill feat, which characters get starting at 2nd level.

(05:00) Small mistake here. The three-action casting of heal does indeed target everyone in the group, but it heals only an amount equal to the caster's spellcasting ability modifier at this level (which should be only 4).

(07:10) I probably should have waited until he rolled to announce the result.

(11:10) The Survival skill can be used to navigate in the wild, make a shelter, and find food. In this case, instead of making shelter, the skill was used to simply find a good, defensible place to camp.

(14:10) Remnants of the wolf encounter that I decided to skip to keep things moving.

(19:00) Okay, I admit, my description of the body may have been a bit too detailed, but it is important for the tone shift that happens at this point in the adventure. Things are starting to get serious.

(21:10) This really does begin to show the relationship between proficiencies and crafting that will undoubtedly be the topic of a future blog post. Suffice it to say, the higher your proficiency, the higher the quality of the items that you can craft.

(23:50) For clarity, there is a pair of puncture wounds on the upper torso and another on the lower torso. The punctures are about an inch in diameter, with the pair about 12 inches apart.

(24:20) The only way the illusion is detected is if it is lower-level than the detection spell. If it is of the same level, it is unnoticed.

(36:10) In converting this particular hazard, I treated the various results on the table as the failure, critical failure, success, and critical success results of the new effect. The DC was changed to 15. I modified the damage a little, but the only other significant change was to remove the ability damage from the critical failure effect, replacing it with a condition to represent a sprained ankle.

(46:10) If this were during combat, when time was short, I could have called for an Athletics skill check to move the horse carcass, instead of just looking at their Strength scores and figuring out how much spare bulk they had to move it around.

(51:50) Repeated the mistake here with heal again. It should have been only 4 points restored.

(55:10) The skeletons here are not very powerful undead, but in large numbers like this, they can be deadly. Most problematic, they have resistance 5 to weapon damage, but they still have a weakness to bludgeoning, which can cancel out that protection.

(1:01:20) Skeletons also have resistance 5 against fire damage.

(1:05:25) Claws are agile weapons, which is why the skeletons use them as their second attack, reducing the penalty on the attack roll to –4.

(1:09:00) The Shield Block reaction is very powerful, preventing damage by forcing the foe to beat its way through your protection. It does mean that warriors tend to go through shields with some frequency.

(1:11:00) The shield spell is also a cantrip, meaning that you can cast it as often as you like.

(1:13:30) Explaining the confusion, there was an earlier draft of acid splash that hit multiple targets. That is no longer the case.

(1:16:10) Troy just cannot roll above a 5 in this fight.

(1:19:00) I finally realized that I was doing the heal spell wrong, and then promptly missed the part where the skeletons should get a save against the effect. Fortunately, it didn't matter much; they were all pretty damaged at this point.

(1:21:45) Sweeping the leg is probably an Athletics skill check...

(1:24:50) There are two doors leading out of the room: one to the east, one to the west. The scream came from the west. Somewhere in the dungeon, a tortured soul calls out for help.

That wraps up this look at the first part of the playtest podcast with the Glass Cannon Network. Stop by on Monday when we will be investigating how you level up using the new rules!

Starfinder Now on Fantasy Grounds!

Thu, Mar 8, 2018, 12:00 pm

We're happy to announce that SmiteWorks has released version 1.0 of their Starfinder Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds! The ruleset comes with the entire contents of the Starfinder core rules in an easy to read reference manual and with drag and drop data elements for everything like classes, races, armor, shields, and starships. Character creation is assisted by dragging and dropping race, theme and then class. Starship build support and starship combat is still getting finalized but will make an appearance when we release version 1.0.

Starfinder Now on Fantasy Grounds!

Thursday, March 8, 2018

We're happy to announce that SmiteWorks has released version 1.0 of their Starfinder Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds! The ruleset comes with the entire contents of the Starfinder core rules in an easy to read reference manual and with drag and drop data elements for everything like classes, races, armor, shields, and starships. Character creation is assisted by dragging and dropping race, theme and then class. Starship build support and starship combat is still getting finalized but will make an appearance when we release version 1.0.

In addition to the Starfinder core rules, we also simultaneously launched the Starfinder Alien Archive and first three volumes of the Dead Suns Adventure Path. The Alien Archive comes with tokens where possible.

Like all official Paizo conversions for Fantasy Grounds, Paizo has allowed us to provide a discount for any product where the PDF is already owned at paizo.com. Use the Store > Paizo Account Synchronization to link your accounts and Retrieve paizo.com Purchases to enable a discount on each product owned. Once linked, the products will show a discount equivalent to the PDF price of the same product. This means $9.99 off the bigger core rules products and as much as $15.99 off when you buy one of the Dead Suns adventures. If you don't already own the PDF, buying the Fantasy Grounds version allows you to sync that purchase back to paizo.com to get a free PDF added to your account there.

All About Actions

Wed, Mar 7, 2018, 12:00 pm

One of the most important aspects of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is combat. Monsters and villains are a very real threat that adventurers have to deal with on a daily basis, and quiet negotiation is rarely the answer. When talking fails, swords are drawn and combat is joined. In Pathfinder First Edition, combat could become rather bogged down just by the weight of options available. Time and time again, we heard new players talk about the complexity of the action system, how it made the game slow down as players looked to eke the most out of their turns.

All About Actions

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

One of the most important aspects of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is combat. Monsters and villains are a very real threat that adventurers have to deal with on a daily basis, and quiet negotiation is rarely the answer. When talking fails, swords are drawn and combat is joined. In Pathfinder First Edition, combat could become rather bogged down just by the weight of options available. Time and time again, we heard new players talk about the complexity of the action system, how it made the game slow down as players looked to eke the most out of their turns.

Basically, the previous system was a barrier, and so it should come as no surprise that we are looking at ways that we can simplify it to make the game run more smoothly and intuitively. The hard part was making sure that the versatility of the old system was still present, while cleaning up the overall experience. We want your turn in combat to be exciting and full of interesting choices. We want you to be elated by coming up with just the right combination of actions to win the day. We just don't want those choices to be hedged in by a number of complex categories.

Seven Types

Before I explain the new way of doing things, it might be good to look back to find some perspective. The previous edition of Pathfinder featured seven distinct action types: free, full-round, immediate, move, standard, swift, and a nebulously defined “other” category. These helped to curb what a character could do and encouraged varied tactics to get the most out of your round. In particular, the immediate action was of interest because it was something you could do outside your turn.

This approach has served us well over the years, but we have long looked for better ways to accomplish some of the same goals with a more intuitive system.

Three Actions

It's your turn. You get to take three actions. That's it. You want to move three times? Done. Instead you want to move once, draw your sword, and attack? No problem. How about attack three times? Go ahead (but you'll take an increasing penalty for each additional attack). With only a few notable exceptions, most things in the game now take one action to accomplish. Opening a door, drawing a weapon, reloading a crossbow, moving up to your speed, raising your shield, taking a guarded step, swinging your greataxe—all of these and much more take just one action to perform.

There are, of course, some exceptions. A few things don't take an action at all, like talking or dropping a weapon. Conversely, most of the spells in the game take two actions to cast, although some can be cast quickly, such as a heal spell that targets yourself. Many of the classes can teach you specific activities that take two more actions to perform. The fighter, for example, has a feat that you can select called Sudden Charge, which costs two actions but lets you to move twice your speed and attack once, allowing fighters to get right into the fray!

One Reaction

One aspect of Pathfinder First Edition that was important to us was the ability to occasionally, if the circumstances were right, act outside your turn. While this was most often a simple attack of opportunity, we saw this as a way to add a whole new dimension to the game.

So now, all characters get one reaction they can take when the conditions are right.

Reactions always come with a trigger that must occur before the reaction can be taken. Let's say you're playing a paladin with a shield and you have spent an action to defend yourself with that shield. Not only does this boost your Armor Class; it also allows you to take a special reaction if you are hit by an attack. This shield block reduces the damage taken by an amount up to the shield's hardness!

Not everybody will have a reaction they can use during combat, but you can always ready an action that allows you prepare a special action that you can take later if the conditions you specify are met. You might ready an action to attack the first orc that walks around the corner, allowing you to make a strike if that happens before your next turn.

Finally, some monsters have reactions they can take as well. While some have simple reactions that allow them to attack those who drop their guard while adjacent to them, others have wildly different abilities. An earth elemental, for example, can spend its reaction after being hit to crumble into a pile of rocks, burrowing down into the ground for safety.

The New System in Practice

The three-action-and-a-reaction system really has done a lot for gameplay around the office. Turns are quite a bit more dynamic. The breadth of options now compete with each other, not based upon what action type they are, but instead on their merits in the current combat situation. Concentrating on a spell might be vital, but not if you need to move away, draw a potion, and drink it. Maybe you could wait to drink it until your next turn to keep the spell going, or maybe you could not move and hope the monster does not eat you.

Most importantly, taking your turn in Pathfinder is now filled with a wide variety of possibilities, allowing you to get the most out of your time in the spotlight, while still keeping the game moving and engaging.

Well, that about wraps up our in-depth look at the new action system for Pathfinder. Come back on Friday for a blog post looking into all of the spoilers from the first part of the Glass Cannon Network's podcast of their playtest of the game. In addition, if you want to see the game yourself, and maybe even get a chance to play, stop by Gary Con this weekend, where we will be running a number of Pathfinder charity games, raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project!

First Look at the Pathfinder Playtest

Tue, Mar 6, 2018, 02:00 pm

Just shy of 10 years ago, on March 18th, 2008, we asked you to take a bold step with us and download the Alpha Playtest PDF for Pathfinder First Edition. Over the past decade, we've learned a lot about the game and the people who play it. We've talked with you on forums, we've gamed with you at conventions, and we've watched you play online and in person at countless venues. We went from updating mechanics to inventing new ones, adding a breadth of options to the game and making the system truly our own. We've made mistakes, and we've had huge triumphs. Now it is time to take all of that knowledge and make the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game even better.

First Look at the Pathfinder Playtest

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Welcome to the next evolution of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!

Just shy of 10 years ago, on March 18th, 2008, we asked you to take a bold step with us and download the Alpha Playtest PDF for Pathfinder First Edition. Over the past decade, we've learned a lot about the game and the people who play it. We've talked with you on forums, we've gamed with you at conventions, and we've watched you play online and in person at countless venues. We went from updating mechanics to inventing new ones, adding a breadth of options to the game and making the system truly our own. We've made mistakes, and we've had huge triumphs. Now it is time to take all of that knowledge and make the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game even better.

By now, you've probably read all about the upcoming launch of the Playtest version of the game set to release on August 2nd, 2018 (but just in case you haven't, click here). In the weeks and months leading up to that release, we are going give you an in-depth look at this game, previewing all 12 of the classes and examining many of the most fundamental changes to the game. Of course, that is a long time to wait to get a complete picture, so I wanted to take this opportunity to give you insight into the game, how it works, and why we made the changes that we made. We will be covering these in much more detail later, but we thought it might be useful to give a general overview right now.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

New, but the Same

Our first goal was to make Pathfinder Second Edition feel just like the game you know and love. That means that as a player, you need to be able to make the choices that allow you to build the character you want to play. Similarly, as a Game Master, you need to have the tools and the support to tell the story you want to tell. The rules that make up the game have to fundamentally still fill the same role they did before, even if some of the mechanics behind them are different.

Building a Character

It's worth taking a moment to talk about how characters are built, because we spent a lot of time making this process smoother and more intuitive. You start by selecting your ancestry (which used to be called race), figuring out where you came from and what sorts of basic statistics you have. Next you decide on your background, representing how you were raised and what you did before taking up the life of an adventurer. Finally, you select your class, the profession you have dedicated yourself to as an intrepid explorer. Each one of these choices is very important, modifying your starting ability scores, giving you starting proficiencies and class skills, and opening up entire feat chains tailored to your character.

After making the big choices that define your character, you have a variety of smaller choices to make, including assigning skill proficiencies, picking an ancestry feat, buying gear, and deciding on the options presented by your class. Finally, after deciding on all of your choices, the only thing left to do is figure out all of your bonuses, which are now determined by one unified system of proficiency, based on your character's level.

As you go on grand adventures with your character, you will gain experience and eventually level up. Pathfinder characters have exciting and important choices to make every time they gain a level, from selecting new class feats to adding new spells to their repertoires.

Playing the Game

We've made a number of changes to the way the game is played, to clean up the overall flow of play and to add some interesting choices in every part of the story. First up, we have broken play up into three distinct components. Encounter mode is what happens when you are in a fight, measuring time in seconds, each one of which can mean life or death. Exploration mode is measured in minutes and hours, representing travel and investigation, finding traps, decoding ancient runes, or even mingling at the queen's coronation ball. Of all the modes of play, exploration is the most flexible, allowing for easy storytelling and a quick moving narrative. Finally, the downtime mode happens when your characters are back in town, or relative safety, allowing them to retrain abilities, practice a trade, lead an organization, craft items, or recuperate from wounds. Downtime is measured in days, generally allowing time to flow by in an instant.

Most of the game happens in exploration or encounter mode, with the two types of play flowing easily from one to the other. In fact, exploration mode can have a big impact on how combat begins, determining what you roll for your initiative. In a group of four exploring a dungeon, two characters might have their weapons ready, keeping an eye out for danger. Another might be skulking ahead, keeping to the shadows, while the fourth is looking for magic. If combat begins, the first two begin with their weapons drawn, ready for a fight, and they roll Perception for their initiative. The skulking character rolls Stealth for initiative, giving them a chance to hide before the fight even begins. The final adventurer rolls Perception for initiative, but also gains some insight as to whether or not there is magic in the room.

After initiative is sorted out and it's your turn to act, you get to take three actions on your turn, in any combination. Gone are different types of actions, which can slow down play and add confusion at the table. Instead, most things, like moving, attacking, or drawing a weapon, take just one action, meaning that you can attack more than once in a single turn! Each attack after the first takes a penalty, but you still have a chance to score a hit. In Pathfinder Second Edition, most spells take two actions to cast, but there are some that take only one. Magic missile, for example, can be cast using from one to three actions, giving you an additional missile for each action you spend on casting it!

Between turns, each character also has one reaction they can take to interrupt other actions. The fighter, for example, has the ability to take an attack of opportunity if a foe tries to move past or its defenses are down. Many classes and monsters have different things they can do with their reactions, making each combat a little bit less predictable and a lot more exciting. Cast a fire spell near a red dragon, for example, and you might just find it takes control of your magic, roasting you and your friends instead of the intended target!

Monsters and Treasure

The changes to the game are happening on both sides of the GM screen. Monsters, traps, and magic items have all gotten significant revisions.

First off, monsters are a lot easier to design. We've moved away from strict monster construction formulas based off type and Hit Dice. Instead, we start by deciding on the creature's rough level and role in the game, then select statistics that make it a balanced and appropriate part of the game. Two 7th-level creatures might have different statistics, allowing them to play differently at the table, despite both being appropriate challenges for characters of that level.

This also makes it easier for us to present monsters, giving us more space to include special abilities and actions that really make a monster unique. Take the fearsome tyrannosaurus, for example; if this terrifying dinosaur gets you in its jaws, it can take an action to fling you up to 20 feet through the air, dealing tremendous damage to you in the process!

Hazards are now a more important part of the game, from rangers creating snares to traps that you have to actively fight against if you want to survive. Poisons, curses, and diseases are a far more serious problem to deal with, having varied effects that can cause serious penalties, or even death.

Of all of the systems that Game Masters interact with, magic items are one of the most important, so we spent extra time ensuring that they are interesting and fun. First and foremost, we have taken significant steps to allow characters to carry the items they want, instead of the items that they feel they must have to succeed. Good armor and a powerful weapon are still critical to the game, but you no longer have to carry a host of other smaller trinkets to boost up your saving throws or ability scores. Instead, you find and make the magic items that grant you cool new things to do during play, giving you the edge against all of the monsters intent on making you into their next meal.

We can't wait until you find your first +1 longsword to see what it can do!

What's Next?

There are a lot of things we are excited to show off, so many in fact that we have to pace ourselves. First off, if you want to hear the game in action right now, we've recorded a special podcast with the folks from the Glass Cannon Network, converting the original Pathfinder First Edition Module, Crypt of the Everflame, to the new edition. Head on over to their site and listen to the first part of this adventure now!

Stop by tomorrow for the first blog taking an in-depth look at Pathfinder Second Edition, starting off with the new system for taking actions, then visit us again on Friday for an exploration of the Glass Cannon game, exploring some of its spoilers in detail!

We Need You!

All of us at Paizo want to take a moment to thank you, the fans, players, and game masters that have made this exciting journey a possibility. It's been a wild ride for the past decade, and speaking personally, I could not be more excited for where we are heading. But, as I am sure you've heard a number of times already, we cannot make this game without you, without your feedback and passion for the game. Thank you for coming with us on this adventure, thank you for contributing to our community, and thank you for playing Pathfinder.

Starfinder Pact Worlds: Per Aspera ad Astra

Fri, Mar 2, 2018, 05:00 pm

By now, you've had a look at the rules governing the Starfinder universe in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. Perhaps you've created a character or two and played in a few sessions of the Dead Suns Adventure Path! You've also gotten a glimpse of many of the weird and wonderful beings found in the Starfinder Alien Archive. But, in my opinion, an RPG really begins to blossom with an exciting and vibrant campaign setting. Luckily, Starfinder Pact Worlds is right around the corner!

Starfinder Pact Worlds: Per Aspera ad Astra

Friday, March 2, 2018

By now, you've had a look at the rules governing the Starfinder universe in the Starfinder Core Rulebook. Perhaps you've created a character or two and played in a few sessions of the Dead Suns Adventure Path! You've also gotten a glimpse of many of the weird and wonderful beings found in the Starfinder Alien Archive. But, in my opinion, an RPG really begins to blossom with an exciting and vibrant campaign setting. Luckily, Starfinder Pact Worlds is right around the corner!

The Pact Worlds is a unified coalition of worlds within the same star system who have banded together for mutual protection against larger threats. These 14 worlds and celestial bodies are the heart of the Starfinder campaign setting, providing a home base (or several home bases) for starship crews and other groups to blast off for adventures among the distant stars. But that doesn't mean the Pact Worlds are safe and boring. Far from it! Intrigue and danger abound in the varied environments and settlements. In fact, the planets of the Pact Worlds boast everything from sun-blasted deserts to frozen mountaintops and from massive space stations to untamed jungles.

Chapter One of Pact Worlds details these planets and celestial bodies, providing descriptions of the geography, residents, society, and political landscape, as well as an extensive list of notable locations. In addition, each entry is accompanied by a full-page map of the entire world—or, in some cases, a map of the most important area. Finally, a new theme inspired by that world rounds out the section.

Let's take a look at a few highlights of the book.

The chapter begins with a description of what is arguably the most important celestial body in the system: the Sun. Though it may seem to be just a burning mass of incandescent plasma that provides heat and light to all other worlds, it is so much more. A strange settlement actually exists floating inside this churning furnace. Discovered by worshipers of the sun goddess Sarenrae over a century ago, this collection of force bubbles of various sizes—dubbed the Burning Archipelago by its first pioneers—now houses a sizeable population. Corporations harnessing the ambient radiation, Xenowardens tending a series of lush gardens, solarian monasteries, a marketplace staffed by efreet and other denizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire, and a huge metal cathedral to the Dawnflower all exist in close proximity in this diverse metropolis.

From the heat of the sun, we turn to the wandering planet of Triaxus, which is currently in the throes of one of its centuries-long winters. The planet's eccentric orbit around the sun stretches out its more extreme seasons, but life has adapted to these climates, with some flora and fauna hibernating until their time to thrive draws close once again. Triaxus's two largest landmasses are home to the planet's main species: dragons, dragonkin, and ryphorians. These ancient cultures warred in the time before the Gap, clashing mainly on the bridge of land between the two continents, but are now in a state of peace. Some individual realms within these areas—the Allied Territories and the Drakelands—still look outward with expansionistic eyes. One such domain is Dretchnyl, run by the powerful green dragon Dretchnyliax, who recently emerged from hiding after being attacked by a contingent of good-aligned metallic dragons. She is now more machine than flesh-and-bone dragon, bristling with cybernetic augmentations and gun-bearing prosthetics.

While dragons and ryphorians have existed in the Pact Worlds system since before the system garnered that name, some denizens are slightly more recent emigrates. The kasathas of the generation ship the Idari are such a civilization, having fled their dying home planet on a slow migration centuries ago. The kasathas bring facets of their own culture to the melting pot of the Pact Worlds, as represented by the tempered pilgrim theme. In their adolescence, kasathas undertake a yearlong walkabout known as the Tempering, in which they are encouraged to experience as much as possible. Some members of other races have adopted this practice as well, and they are represented with the tempered pilgrim theme. They have extended the philosophy to their everyday lives, and learn about new cultures very easily and can draw on the diverse array of experiences they have already had. They consider themselves students of the universe, always ready to learn more.

Like any other spacefarer, these tempered pilgrims need a way to get from planet to planet or from star system to star system. Pact Worlds includes a handful of new starship options and example starships, focusing on groups such as the Hellknights and the Xenowardens. The most impressive of these vessels is the Iomedaean Cathedralship, a gargantuan carrier designed to look a soaring marble edifice. The Cathedralships come complete with soaring buttresses and artificial stained glass windows. The sight of such a ship usually evokes pride in the faithful and fear in the hearts of their enemies.

And that's just a taste of what can be found in Pact Worlds! Stay tuned for more preview blogs in the coming weeks!

Covered in Creepy Crawlies

Fri, Mar 2, 2018, 12:00 pm

Happy Friday, Pathfinders! We're now well on our way through our exploration of the forthcoming Jungle of Despair miniatures set from WizKids, due out in May. This week, I set aside my instinctive reaction to snakes and spiders and show off some of the figures in the set most likely to make your players' skin crawl.

Covered in Creepy Crawlies

Friday, March 2, 2018

Happy Friday, Pathfinders! We're now well on our way through our exploration of the forthcoming Jungle of Despair miniatures set from WizKids, due out in May. This week, I set aside my instinctive reaction to snakes and spiders and show off some of the figures in the set most likely to make your players' skin crawl.

Continuing the set's theme of snakes and serpentfolk, we begin with the metal cobra, a Small figure, this ophidian foe works both as a mechanical guardian left in otherwise abandoned tombs and ruins to protect the treasures within, or a more natural snake encountered in just about any environment (especially for GMs willing to repaint the minis). Released at the common rarity, most collectors will end up with a handful of them in their collection, giving them even more versatility to be used as a lone animal companion or an overwhelming swarm.

The metal cobra isn't the only creepy construct in the set, however. Check out the apparatus of the octopus, a magic item from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures. Capable of carrying two riders, this piece of dungeon dressing could easily serve as both treasure in a jungle grotto or as a means of conveyance along the ocean floor to an isolated jungle island. The figure is 60mm tall, which makes it roughly 11 feet tall at scale, making it a formidable presence on the table.

No trip to the jungle is complete without bugs, and not just any bugs. Giant bugs! Huge bugs! Bugs the size of people! THEM! We could make a dozen sets of nothing but giant bugs and still have species and sizes we never covered, so we have to pick our favorites. Jungle of Despair features the giant ant, a common figure, that can stand in for any number of Medium giant insects. Druids with the vermin familiar class feature from Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic can have a Medium giant ant companion at 4th level, making this miniature useful for a handful of players as well as GMs.

The Material Plane isn't the only plane full of creepers and crawlers. The Abyss prides itself on its myriad gross inhabitants, not the least of which are the primeval qlippoth, who hope to eradicate all mortals from existence, thereby ending sin and with it the demons from whom they could reclaim their stolen plane. Jungle of Despair features four qlippoth figures (and a few daemons, of whom the qlippoth also aren't particularly fond), the first of which is the thulgant qlippoth. This horrific, spider-like creature has tentacles and scorpion stingers and an overwhelming hatred for demonkind. Lording over hives of bound servitors in the depths of the Abyss, thulgants make great campaign villains, and at CR 18, present a challenging capstone encounter for experienced adventuring parties. The thulgant qlippoth is a Large rare figure.

Next week, we'll stare fully into the Abyss and see what other qlippoth stare back. Strap in for a journey to the lower planes, as we face off against five jungle fiends! Until then, roll high, and don't split the party!

Hail Gom-Gom!

Thu, Mar 1, 2018, 12:00 pm

The Occult Adventures decks were a fantastic opportunity to stretch our creative limbs and show you some of the wilder things we can do in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Characters like Yoon, Mavaro, and Erasmus epitomize the ever-shifting cycle of play that I personally prefer, so I hope they work out well for you.

Hail Gom-Gom!

Thursday, March 1, 2018

The Occult Adventures decks were a fantastic opportunity to stretch our creative limbs and show you some of the wilder things we can do in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Characters like Yoon, Mavaro, and Erasmus epitomize the ever-shifting cycle of play that I personally prefer, so I hope they work out well for you.

Yoon: Hi there, you! Meet Gom-Gom! He talks!

Which is scarier? Telling Yoon that Gom-Gom isn't really talking, or finding out he is?

Yoon: I'm going to tell you about the Occult Adventures Character Deck 2, which is the bestest deck with the bestest characters ever! I'm Yoon, Pretty Princess of Fire, and Herald of Gom-Gom. That means I talk for Gom-Gom who is the smartest coolest stuffed owly bear ever, and my favoritest card in the whole world. He tells me all sorts of great stuff about what I should do and who I should burn, and he protects me at night, so you better watch out or he'll make me burn you up!

Just nod along and don't get set on fire. Not being set on fire is good.

Yoon: I've been all over finding lots of cool stuff which make even cooler cards, like my stick that I used to hit things for fun like a game. Or people that are mean, but aren't on fire yet. Or to put out the fire, afterwards. Oh, and did I mention fire, cause it's totally awesome and I can make lots of it, cause I'm awesome. Don't you think I'm awesome?

What do you get the Occultist that has everything? More everything.

Mavaro: Yoon's enthusiasm for the deck is well earned, even if her focus may be misplaced. The true power of this deck can be found by careful examination of the cards within, the story they each can tell, and the many synergies a master of the occult may derive from them. As you can see, as an occultist I can ensure that I collect powerful and dangerous objects and use them safely. As you no doubt already know, I can do anything with time and the right tools.

Some cards are not for the squeamish.

Mavaro: This deck includes some of the finest items I have examined. The Planchette allows communication with spirits and is of extraordinary use if you are perceptive, particularly if you have examined your surroundings before using it. Many might shirk from carrying a Shrunken Head, but I can assure you of its efficacy in overcoming any foe whose mind is able to be influenced. The Lexicon of the Planes is a powerful artifact that can be used to move a battle to a less inimical location to assure success.

Did you know that Mike Selinker designed both the Harrow Deck and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game?

Erasmus: The wonderful Eliandra Giltessan has waxed poetic quite enough over my capabilities, so I will be brief. Some of you are as interested as I am in harrowing, so I wanted to show you the possibilities and capabilities of my fine Harrow Deck. When I channel the power of my sister Veldira, priestess of Pharasma, I am a master of divining fate and influencing it.

There are how many stars!? I'm going to need a bigger deck.

Erasmus: I also wanted to assure you that, as mentioned previously, this deck continues the fine practice of observing the powers and benefits of tracking the stars and the signs found in them. The rider assists in war rangings, the mother protects us, and the bridge guides us past obstacles that might hinder our progress.

...

This deck marks the last Class Deck on the schedule for a while, as the next five months feature the Ultimate Add-On Decks. Reminder: The Ultimate decks are part of the main Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Subscription, not the Class Deck subscription, so make sure you're signed up if you want them! And if you're excited by any of the new and strange things to be found in Occult Adventures, better buckle up, because the Ultimate decks are aptly named!

Unseasonably Warm?

Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 05:00 pm

If you haven't heard the stereotypes, Seattle has a rather dreary reputation for being constantly cloudy, rainy, chilly, and damp. That's only about 80% true; our summers (starting a little before PaizoCon) are quite beautiful and warm. However, it's around late February that I'm rather desperate for the feel direct sunlight and warmth. Apparently this month's scenarios got the memo, and both involve a swelteringly welcome break from the northern hemisphere's winter.

Unseasonably Warm?

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

If you haven't heard the stereotypes, Seattle has a rather dreary reputation for being constantly cloudy, rainy, chilly, and damp. That's only about 80% true; our summers (starting a little before PaizoCon) are quite beautiful and warm. However, it's around late February that I'm rather desperate for the feel direct sunlight and warmth. Apparently this month's scenarios got the memo, and both involve a swelteringly welcome break from the northern hemisphere's winter.

In the first, author Nicholas Wasko takes us down to the rough-and-tumble port of Bloodcove, the heart of Aspis Consortium activity in the Mwangi Expanse. Pathfinder Society Scenario #9–15: The Bloodcove Blockade is a Tier 3–7 scenario that continues an ongoing storyline that began in Season 8. The Consortium's up to its usual tricks of exploiting the Mwangi Expanse's mineral and cultural resources, but lately the organization's taken an interest to a particular site in the Kaava Lands. The catch? Much like how tree roots anchor the soil, these ruins and the surrounding jungle have kept a powerful fiend locked away. As a result, the Society's trying to shut down the Consortium's imminent strip-mining scheme for more than just ecological conservation. That means sneaking into Bloodcove to sabotage the operation, and the Exchange faction's itching to leverage its economic muscles to blockade the port and strangle out the Consortium's dangerous plans. Naturally, Exchange faction PCs have a special opportunity here, courtesy of Guaril Karela.

Nicholas Wasko's done a nice job with this adventure, which involves lots of urban danger, a dash of intrigue, and a lot of dealing with fun NPCs. What I really appreciate here is his attention to detail in portraying Bloodcove, which straddles the silt-choked Vanji River and is built atop an extensive grove of mangrove trees. Not only does the mangroves' flavor play an important part in several encounters—such as with the illustrated Erwyn Harvacus, leader of a druid circle who keeps the ever-growing mangroves from swallowing the city—but it's also beautifully depicted in the scenario's custom map by Robert Lazzaretti.

Illustration by Maja Djeke

Of course, it's no surprise when traveling toward the equator leads to warmer weather. We're playing a fantasy RPG, aren't we? Where's the supernatural weather? Where's the ritual to inject the sweet relief of spring into winter's cold clutches? Look no further than Pathfinder Society Scenario #9–14: Down the Verdant Path, a Tier 1–5 scenario by Scott Sharplin. Ever since Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–15: The Overflow Archives, we've known that Scott has a special talent for telling stories with whimsical themes, and #9–14 is no exception. Down the Verdant Path takes the PCs to Andoran, where they must untangle the secrets behind a strange weather phenomenon: in the middle of winter, there's a verdant explosion of summer weather! The PCs' journey takes them into the depths of the Verduran Forest and beyond, introducing them to a host of "colorful" characters like the gnome Azure (pictured here).

What else is special about Down the Verdant Path? It's the first ever adventure to include a Concordance of Elements (i.e. "the Concordance") special faction opportunity! Back in December we announced the new Concordance faction, dedicated to maintaining the elemental balance of the cosmos, studying the multiverse's natural complexity, and calming areas of elemental instability. For the Concordance's debut, we wanted to reinforce that the faction's more than just a "nature faction" eager to hug pixies and high-five druids. No, this organization recognizes that even natural forces can grow wildly out of control and require intervention, and that's just what you get to do in this scenario. We're excited to see how the faction grows and what you think of it.

Illustration by Sebastian Rodriguez

Guide and Faction Journal Cards

An updated version of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide is now available on the website. Not only has Linda Zayas-Palmer put in a lot of work updating several major sections (including the spell hierarchy for buying scrolls and the retraining class synergies), but there's also now a faction entry for the Concordance, complete with five new faction traits. We've also updated the Season 9 Faction Journal Cards with a Concordance card. Thanks, Linda!

Find out Next Time, on Starfinder Society!

Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 12:00 pm

It's safe to say that John Compton and I can get a tad excited about campaign storylines. When we first sat down to start hashing out the first wave of Starfinder Society scenarios, we came up with a huge list of ideas that pulled from popular Pathfinder Society scenarios, common sci-fi tropes and more. Of these ideas, perhaps none stood out more than one fateful thought I threw into the mix after reading about Eox: "What if we have the Starfinders take part in a reality TV show?"

Find out Next Time, on Starfinder Society!

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

It's safe to say that John Compton and I can get a tad excited about campaign storylines. When we first sat down to start hashing out the first wave of Starfinder Society scenarios, we came up with a huge list of ideas that pulled from popular Pathfinder Society scenarios, common sci-fi tropes and more. Of these ideas, perhaps none stood out more than one fateful thought I threw into the mix after reading about Eox: "What if we have the Starfinders take part in a reality TV show?"

Welcome to Starfinder Society #1–09: Live Exploration Extreme! Written by Paizo's own, John Compton, this scenario had one of the most attention-catching premises that we came across during the time when we sat down to pitch the 2017/2018 scenario roster. I knew it was a success when during the process, we went through discussing each of the scenarios, got to this one, and John ended the conversation with a quick "Ok, I'll write this one."

Well John, after so many times writing scenarios for you… THE TABLES HAVE FINALLY TURNED!

Joking aside, Live Exploration Extreme is an important scenario for several reasons. First off, it's back to basics in terms of being a Tier 1–4 scenario. Second, it brings the Starfinder Society back into the mysterious false moon of Salvation's End that we last explored in Starfinder Society Scenario #1–00: Claim to Salvation. Finally (at least for what I can describe in this blog), this scenario brings the idea of celebrities and icons to the forefront of Starfinder. I would highly suggest that if you have a character with the Icon theme or are even slightly interested in dabbling in the realm of "stellar celebrity" that you give this scenario a shot!

Much of what occurs during this scenario is a spoiler-filled minefield, so rather than talk too much about the plot, I want to talk about media overload. A camera crew accompanies the PCs during most of this adventure, and if that weren't enough, the PCs need to put on a good show in order to impress influential Society allies (who may or may not have an exclamation point in their name, similar to the title of this scenario). Be aware that this scenario plays off a lot of tropes of modern reality TV, replete with moments for PCs to embellish their combat actions to set up "just the right shot" or even take some time after combat to privately reminisce (or harshly critique) the actions of fellow party members inside "the booth." More than most scenarios, Live Exploration Extreme is about consent; the goal is to have a fun time and not have players feel out of place because of themes or rules of the scenario. The scenario makes sure to spell this out to the GMs, so for players concerned about the potential media and social overload associated with reality TV, I would still consider giving this scenario a shot—after all, sometimes it's the one quip from the character who's said nothing else the entire episode that defines a show! This scenario has no scenario tags.

Speaking of convention season, I think I need to get back to development! There's a lot of exciting stuff coming up in just the next few months. Also, be on the lookout for a post in the coming weeks discussing our season transition and plans taking us past the summer convention season.

See you on the other side of the Drift.

Thurston HillmanStarfinder Society Developer

PS: Special shout-out to Paizo's Customer Service Manager, Sara Marie, for helping to inspire this month's scenario. I first discovered the joys of combining reality TV and tabletop RPGs when I played in her Survivor-themed game during a past PaizoCon. Of course, I may have rose-tinted memories of that game because of how many times my character managed to snag the immunity idol…

Solstice Scar Update

Fri, Feb 23, 2018, 05:00 pm

At PaizoCon 2017, Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild launched a new form of multi-table interactive special (usually shortened to just “a Special”). In doing so, we changed up two big assumptions from past Specials. First, other Specials traditionally kicked off a new season and included integral plot developments that really incentivized playing that Special as soon as possible. Second, those Specials were each built to be self-contained, to portray snapshot events that never evolved, and needed to be built from the ground up each time. As we explored new ways to provide Specials to more conventions—particularly to those taking place between January and May, by which point many people have already played the big Special that debuted at Gen Con the previous year—we developed Pathfinder Society Special #8–99: The Solstice Scar, a modular Special comprised of numerous 90-minute-long parts that can be swapped out over time to tell an evolving story.

Solstice Scar Update

Friday, February 23, 2018

At PaizoCon 2017, Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild launched a new form of multi-table interactive special (usually shortened to just “a Special”). In doing so, we changed up two big assumptions from past Specials. First, other Specials traditionally kicked off a new season and included integral plot developments that really incentivized playing that Special as soon as possible. Second, those Specials were each built to be self-contained, to portray snapshot events that never evolved, and needed to be built from the ground up each time. As we explored new ways to provide Specials to more conventions—particularly to those taking place between January and May, by which point many people have already played the big Special that debuted at Gen Con the previous year—we developed Pathfinder Society Special #8–99: The Solstice Scar, a modular Special comprised of numerous 90-minute-long parts that can be swapped out over time to tell an evolving story.

How does “The Solstice Scar” work?

The Solstice Scar consists of three 90-minute chapters, called parts, and each time we swap out an older part and add a newer one, we release a new version of the adventure. At PaizoCon 2017, we released Version A (aka #8–99A), which consisted of Parts 1, 2, and 3. About a month ago we sent out Version B, which consists of Parts 1, 3, and 4. Each new version's repeats that process, removing one older part and adding on a new part. That means that if you play all versions of The Solstice Scar, you'll experience some parts several times while also experiencing new content.

“Season Agnostic”: One of the key design goals was to create a story that could stand on its own. The Solstice Scar does not interact directly with any of the season storylines, instead telling its own epic narrative.

Replay: Playing The Solstice Scar multiple times does suggest that someone can play it multiple times, right? That's right, specifically each version of this Special is considered a separate adventure for the purpose of reporting. That means you can earn credit once as a player and as a GM each time we release a new version. What's more, that also means that the same character can play and earn credit for each version; there's even a boon with a niche cumulative award.

Restrictions: This Special is playable in any venue that can field the minimum 3 tables. That makes it an excellent fit for everything from large conventions to smaller local events.

Retirement: Each version of The Solstice Scar is only playable for a limited time (approximately 6 months). Once a new version of the adventure's released to the public, the previous version is retired from play. There is a possibility that we'll release a combined 6-part version after Part D is out in the wild for a while.

Exclusivity Windows: Each version has approximately a 6-month life cycle. When a new version is first ready, it's available only to spotlight events for a window of about 1–2 months; you won't be able to buy it during this time, and during this period, people can play both that version and the previous version. After that, the new version's available to the public and playable for another 4–5 months. I've provided more exact dates in the Timeline section below.

Access: If your event would benefit from running The Solstice Scar, particularly during the summer exclusivity window for Version C and the January exclusivity window for Version D, contact your Regional Venture Coordinator.

Authors: This modular structure also allows us to bring in several authors over the course of the storyline. Andrew Hoskins wrote Parts 1–4 when we first outlined the story, and Kalervo Oikarinen is concluding the narrative with Parts 5 and 6.

Versions: There are four versions of The Solstice Scar scheduled.

Version A (Parts 1, 2, and 3)

Version B (Parts 1, 3, and 4)

Version C (Parts 3, 4, and 5)

Version D (Parts 4, 5, and 6)

Timeline

Here's how the dates break down for The Solstice Scar. The exclusivity window for Version D includes some approximate dates that we'll be locking in over time.

May 28, 2017: Version A launched at PaizoCon, beginning the exclusivity window.

August 4, 2017: Version A featured at Gen Con, after which the exclusivity window ended. The Special became available for any qualifying events.

January 12, 2018: Version B features at numerous conventions worldwide, beginning the exclusivity window. During this time, Version A is still playable at all venues.

February 21, 2018: The exclusivity window for Version B ends. Version A is retired.

May 27, 2018: Version C launches at PaizoCon, beginning its exclusivity window. During this time, Version B is still playable at all venues.

August 6, 2018: Version C features at Gen Con, after which the exclusivity window ends. Version B is retired.

January XXXX, 2019: Version D features at numerous conventions worldwide, beginning the exclusivity window. During this time, Version C is still playable at all venues.

February XXXX, 2019: The exclusivity window for Version D ends. Version C is retired.

Feedback

The Solstice Scar is a neat experiment that's worked out fairly well so far, and we're always open to feedback on how we can adapt the model to continue providing great multi-table experiences. Let us know what you'd like to see and where the Society should go for its next big story.

Building a party is only half the story; you also want to improve those characters over time. This article talks about how to do so in a general way, then next month's article focuses on thinking about precise cards (and traits). Most of this general advice is strategic, affecting overall play.

This is the fourteenth installment of our strategy blog written by game historian Shannon Appelcline. You can read all the installments here.

Building a party is only half the story; you also want to improve those characters over time. This article talks about how to do so in a general way, then next month's article focuses on thinking about precise cards (and traits). Most of this general advice is strategic, affecting overall play.

Start with the pregen decks

It might seem like strange advice, but it's often best to begin inefficiently. If you start with the pregenerated deck for your character, listed in the rulebook, then you have great ground to build from: you can spend the "Basic" adventures, which don't give out many feats, adapting your deck to your own liking.

(This also has the benefit of making it really easy to start your first game.)

Corollary #1: If cards aren't fun, dump them. But don't go too far. If it looks like a card is never going to get used and doesn't add to your fun, dump it. The goal of this starting advice is to make the early parts of your PACG campaign more fun, so make sure that's what happens.

Assess what characters need before each game

At the start of each scenario, review your characters' weaknesses and what categories of cards might help them. These might be group-wide inadequacies, such as insufficient healing or inability to deal with traps. More likely, they're weaknesses in your own character, such as not having leveled up your combat cards or having items that just aren't that useful. Use these needs as a guide for play throughout the session.

Corollary #1: Make card needs a priority in location choice. Once you've determined what sorts of cards your characters could benefit from, consider positioning them at locations that are full of those cards—though do so as part of a total strategy for choosing locations, as outlined in "Choosing Location Decks."

Tag-team your deckbuilding

Remember that this is a cooperative game. You should help other characters get what they need. When you discover a gap among your skills, or a character that needs a specific sort of card, your next step should be to determine who can best acquire those cards. Then send them in! You can always trade cards at the end of the game.

Corollary #1: Toss cards that are useless to you into your discard pile. You should never be afraid to toss cards that are clogging your hand into your discard pile. This is particularly true when you acquire a card for someone else, and it's not that useful to you.

Make deckbuilding a priority in play

In order to constantly improve your characters, you need to make sure that deckbuilding is a priority in your play. Send characters to locations where they can get stuff that your party needs, then consider spending blessings or playing other good cards to make sure they get that good stuff. It shouldn't be your first priority; that should be winning. But it should probably be your second priority, and something that you're always considering.

Corollary #1: Make deckbuilding the first priority if you're losing. If you're already losing, why not making deckbuilding the first priority? Talk with your group, and if you decide your current mission is hopeless, refocus on getting as many boons as you can before the timer runs out.

Corollary #2: Perhaps making deckbuilding the first priority if you're running behind. This could be controversial, but sometimes you may want to go into a game with a losing attitude. If you feel like your characters are behind the curve and haven't picked up enough of the more recent cards, then you're likely to be losing some games in your near future anyway. So, why not cut to the chase and start going after boons now? If you get lucky and close some locations, then you can reassess.

You can also play a few tactical tricks to improve your overall deckbuilding.

Purposefully void a category during play

You can improve your group's decks by purposefully creating a void in a category of cards. It works like this: one or more characters have bad cards in the category; you don't collect anything new for the category during the adventure; and you banish some of the bad cards through play. For example, you can void items by using up potions, you can void armor by using their banish effects, and you can void spells by casting them without the right skill. Some locations also require card banishment. At the end of the game, you will then be able to choose specific cards from the box to fill that void.

This is probably only worthwhile if you realize midgame or later that you're not acquiring a card type. But, if that's the case, consider taking advantage of it.

Corollary #1: Use card feats to create voids. It's even easier to create voids during adventures where victory gives you a card feat. You can take card feats in categories where you're short on cards or have just enough, and that will instantly allow you to draw from the box!

Corollary #2: Push on this tactic starting in adventure #3. This advice isn't that strong while you're working on the first two adventures, because you can only replace voids with Basic cards. But, starting in adventure #3, you can retrieve any card from two boxes earlier. That's the deckbuilding jackpot for this tactic.

Be careful what you take

If you're purposefully voiding a card category, be careful what you take. You don't want to fill that carefully constructed void with some card that you don't care about. Remember that when you encounter a boon, you do not have to try and acquire it. Just reject it if it would fill a void (unless you really need the hit point).

Corollary #1: Also reject Basic and Elite cards late in the game. Rejecting cards is also good advice late in an adventure path when Basic and Elite cards are removed from the game when you banish them. Reject them and they'll be gone instantly; this will also improve your long-term deckbuilding, because it will improve your pool of cards.

Don't give characters cards that will get stuck

Here's another way to be careful about what you take. When you're rebuilding decks, don't give characters cards that will get stuck in their hand, clogging it for a whole game. What this means is different for different characters. If a character can recharge (like Lem) or bury (like Amiri) or discard (like Lirianne), they can get anything out of their hand. But, if a character instead has to depend on the actual cards for deck cycling, then be sure to give them lots more recharging cards, particularly allies, armors, and (if it's possible) items.

I've got one more article for this series, which is going to talk about specific types of cards to acquire. I hope to see you back in a month to bid my strategy discussion bon voyage.

PaizoCon 2018 Event Submission is Open!

Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 12:00 pm

PaizoCon 2018 is now less than 100 days away, and that means the time to roll dice together is quickly approaching. But we can't roll dice if there are no games to play, and that's where you come in! Each year, we allow attendees—both fans and third-party publishers—to run their own events, put them on the official PaizoCon schedule, and allow for online registration. This year, we've moved the event submission interface to Google forms: PaizoCon 2018 Event Submission Form.

PaizoCon 2018 Event Submission is Open!

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

PaizoCon 2018 is now less than 100 days away, and that means the time to roll dice together is quickly approaching. But we can't roll dice if there are no games to play, and that's where you come in! Each year, we allow attendees—both fans and third-party publishers—to run their own events, put them on the official PaizoCon schedule, and allow for online registration. This year, we've moved the event submission interface to Google forms: PaizoCon 2018 Event Submission Form.

You can fill out an event form for each event you'd like to submit. If all of the details are the same and you want to run it multiple times, you only need to fill out the form once. (If you represent multiple GM's who will be running the same event you only need to fill out the event form once).

If you save the link when you have submitted your event, you should be able to go back and edit your submission until March 1st.

We have reduced the length of event descriptions to 150 characters. Once the schedule is posted online, you will be able to post in your event's discussion thread with more details.

Paizo will not be running Organized Play events during the 1pm-6pm time slots. We will be offering the use of part of the Grand Ballroom for individuals who wish to run organized play scenarios during this time. If you wish to do this and be included in the PaizoCon schedule which lets attendees sign up for the game online and reserves you a table, you can submit an event using this form. Note that Saturday's time slot will be 1pm-5pm and all attendees must leave the room promptly at 5pm so hotel staff can set up for the PaizoCon Preview Banquet. Please format Starfinder and Pathfinder Org Play scenarios as #[season][scenario number]: Title (example: #9-01: The Cost of Enlightenment).

We can't wait to see what fantastic events the community comes up with this year, so don't delay. Submit your event before March 1, when the submission window closes.

PaizoCon 2018 will take place May 25th–May 28th, 2018 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotels, 18740 International Blvd., Seattle, WA, 98188. For more information, check the PaizoCon page.

It's Dangerous to Go Alone

Mon, Feb 19, 2018, 12:00 pm

Okay, so I need to get this off my chest. We all know the classic line from the cave hermit at the start of The Legend of Zelda. "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." Cool. But how does taking a sword address the fact that Link is still going alone? Sure, he has something with which to fight the danger inherent in solo adventuring, but wouldn't it be better for the old dude to also advise Link to take some friends along? That worked really well for 15 core Final Fantasy games.* I'm just saying.

It's Dangerous to Go Alone

Monday, February 19, 2018

Okay, so I need to get this off my chest. We all know the classic line from the cave hermit at the start of The Legend of Zelda. "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." Cool. But how does taking a sword address the fact that Link is still going alone? Sure, he has something with which to fight the danger inherent in solo adventuring, but wouldn't it be better for the old dude to also advise Link to take some friends along? That worked really well for 15 core Final Fantasy games.* I'm just saying.

Well, when you venture into the Jungle of Despair in May, I advise you to take allies in addition to your swords, boomerangs, bombs, and whatnot. And when you build your expedition party, you're going to need some miniatures to represent them. That's where today's blog comes in!

What jungle expedition is complete without a ranger to cut a path through the thick underbrush, to listen to the calls of nearby fauna warning of pending danger, or to gauge the best time and place to make camp during the annual monsoon, when the threat of flash flooding could ruin your much-needed 8 hours of rest. Enter the human hunter, a Medium uncommon figure, and your savior when you need a high roll on that next Survival check. Equipped with a ghillie suit, soft leather boots, and a knocked arrow ready to let fly, the human hunter won't make a sound as she blazes a trail to adventure at your side!

"But," you might inquire, "what's our guide's final destination? Where are we going?" Why to find that lost magic anvil from the blog two weeks ago, silly! And who better to accompany such an expedition but the dwarf explorer? No one. There is no one better. If you don't believe me, this curmudgeonly companion will remind you at every opportunity. He's clearly planning on doing some spelunking, what with his rope and grappling hook, but even aboveground he stands to be a stalwart ally with his short sword and heavy crossbow. The dwarf explorer is a Medium rare figure.

Rounding out the party is some magical support—a companion capable of deciphering ancient runes and dispelling arcane wards that protect your prize from plunder. The human arcanist looks like he could hail from the esteemed magical academy of the Magaambya deep in the heart of the Mwangi Jungle, where acolytes of Old-Mage Jatembe still mix the traditions of arcane and druidic magic to keep the forces of evil at bay. And if his magic fails, he can always literally throw the book at his enemies. Look at that thing! It has to weigh 20 pounds! The human arcanist is a Medium rare figure.

When the dangers of the deep jungle become too much for even these capable adventurers to handle, they can always call upon the help of outsiders (maybe that giant book is full of true names used for planar binding and other summoning spells). But the arcanists of the Magaambya would never treat with the likes of devils or demons. Only the forces of good are, well, good enough for our magic warriors! The azata wilder, a CR 6 outsider capable of being summoned via summon monster V, relishes the thrill of battle, and would be more than happy to come to your aid. Since higher level variants of the spell could result in as many as 1d4+1 of the azatas, this is a common figure, enabling you to represent an entire host of Elysian archers on the battle mat. As a Medium creature with distinct elven features, the figure can also serve as a player character in a pinch—I could see this as an aasimar or a sorcerous elf arcane archer with the celestial bloodline.

Next week we'll look at the antithesis of today's previews: creepy, crawly creatures from the dark places of the earth (and at least one outer plane), as well as a thematically related piece of dungeon dressing! I look forward to continuing the conversation with you then, friends!

Mark MorelandFranchise Manager

*Yes, I know there are like fifty Final Fantasy games at this point. I said "core"—like with a Roman numeral in its title. You don't get to out-pedant me, nerds.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Come on in, come on in! You look thirsty. Pull up a stool and let me pour you a drink. What's your poison? Whiskey? Wine? No matter, we have it all here! *polishes glass with a dirty rag*

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Friday, February 16, 2018

Come on in, come on in! You look thirsty. Pull up a stool and let me pour you a drink. What's your poison? Whiskey? Wine? No matter, we have it all here! *polishes glass with a dirty rag*

What's that? You say you read about our humble establishment in some kind of guidebook? Mind if I take a look? Inner Sea Taverns, hmm? Interesting...

Cayden's tankard, this book is something else! Not only does it have information about a tavern's menu and owner, there's also a map for some of these bars! And it even tells you about a tavern's customers! I wouldn't want my patrons to find out about this, that's for sure.

I can't say as I've been all around the Inner Sea, but I did my fair share of traveling before I bought this place. Let's see if I've heard of any of these places.

Ha! Here! The Whispering Stone in Osirion. They say if you kiss the lips of the stone statue that stands in the middle of its open-air pavilion, you'll have luck in love. Don't you believe it! After a few mugs of their pink hibiscus punch, I pulled a chair over to that hunk of rock and planted one right on its mouth. The next thing I remember is waking up in a nearby stable with my face in some camel's fur! True, I later bought that camel and she got me alive out of a number of scrapes in the Parched Dunes, but I wouldn't call that true love!

Oh, and here's the Porthmos Club over in Taldor! Full of snooty nobles who wouldn't give the likes of you or me a second glance if they saw us on the street. But they still need a place to drink and gamble, don't they? Ha! I was actually a senator's aide for a day in Oppara—that's a story for another time—and had to purchase a brand-new doublet just so they would let me in. And with my own coin no less! Truth be told, that was the finest bar I've ever been thrown out of.

I can't believe it, this book even has the rules for a handful of pub games! Why, I haven't played bootbeer in ages. I think I have an old dented helmet in the back from my days in the Molthune militia if you want to go a few rounds. Beer's on the house! No? Suit yourself, then.

Well, friend, I have to tell you that this book is amazing. I wonder who took the time to put this together. No matter. Say, before you leave, keep an eye out for this pale half-elf that's been skulking around town. He's nothing but trouble. There's a sketch of him on the notice board, but you really can't miss him—I don't think he's ever covered up his chest in his life!